Digital Commons Network^™

Synthesis Of Citrate Based Polyesters, Emma E.C. Buckhalter

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

Redefining Professional Boundaries To Strengthen Relationships And Postsecondary Goal-Setting: An Improvement Science Approach To Coaching Opportunity Youth, Felipe De Jesus Longoria-Shinn

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Transitional and independent living coaches at Central Service Agency (CSA), a pseudonym for a Midwestern human services organization, support opportunity youth—young people facing systemic barriers—in improving their life trajectories. Although CSA has served an increasing number of youth in recent years, the number pursuing postsecondary education has remained stagnant or declined. This study engaged coaches, staff, and participating youth in an improvement science (IS) initiative designed to increase the number of postsecondary goals set by youth. Grounded in research demonstrating that postsecondary pathways can mitigate the effects of adverse life experiences and promote long-term mobility, this study examined how relational …

An Annotated Bibliography Of Music For Flute Alone And Flute And Electronics By Lgbtq Composers, Bridget Hill

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Throughout my formal music education and general music upbringing, I have noted the erasure of the LGBTQ identities of artists, composers, musicians, and historical figures from formal music curricula, and from the concert hall. In response to this erasure, I am increasing visibility through the act of record-keeping by taking inventory of the works written for flute by LGBTQ composers. In searching for flute music by LGBTQ composers, it became clear that works by these composers were not organized into a centralized collection, or body of work.

This document will start the process of record-keeping by collecting and annotating works …

Xie V. 25 Fayette Llc

All Decisions

In a small claims action, the Civil Court awarded the tenant $10,000 for flooding and mold caused by nearby Con Ed construction. The tenant established through testimony, photographs, and an HPD violation that the conditions existed. The court held that a landlord's nondelegable duty to maintain habitable premises extends to conditions caused by third parties. The award represents a partial rent abatement and compensation for damage to the tenant's furniture and belongings.

Autoantibody Reactivity In Hidradenitis Suppurativa: Characterizing Keratinocyte And Apocrine Gland Targets Across Disease Progression And Anti-Tnf-Α Treatment, Talla Hamouche

Student Theses and Dissertations

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic, relapsing inflammatory skin disease associated with impaired quality of life, representing one of the highest burdens among dermatological conditions. This debilitating disorder primarily affects apocrine-gland-bearing and flexural skin areas, most commonly the axillae, breast, buttocks, and groin. As lesions recur and new sites emerge, surgical excision does not guarantee prevention of disease reestablishment. Despite its substantial burden, HS remains among the least understood and most treatment-resistant inflammatory diseases. The mechanisms underlying this chronicity and the frequent failure of conventional anti-inflammatory therapies remain unresolved. An underappreciated autoimmune dimension may contribute to HS pathogenesis: the clonal …

We Are Not What We Think: Solipsism & The Concept Of Mind, Michael Marcoux

Student Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I argue that the persuasiveness of solipsism—understood as skepticism of the existence of anything or anyone outside of one’s own private mental life—rests not on its intrinsic argumentative force, but on the degree of commitment to a certain philosophical dogma. I use the problem of solipsism to tease out this dogma, which I dub the Primacy of Privacy. It is characterized by the conviction that in dealing with what there is and what we know, the mental, be it construed in terms of perceptions or thoughts, is the only certain datum from which most if not all …

Stroke Alert Education And Jump Bag, Emily Mitchell

Nursing

Background: Stroke events in the postoperative period are low volume, high-risk events requiring timely identification and treatment. This project aimed to improve the response to potential strokes in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) by enhancing nurse knowledge, confidence and compliance with stroke alert protocols and documentation compliance.

Objectives: Upon review of stroke events in PACU and nurse identified barriers to stroke response in PACU two areas of focus were identified. The primary focus was to increase nurse’s confidence and knowledge with the stroke alert interventions and process. The secondary focus was to increase adherence to documentation standards per the …

Unique Transmissions Of Cycle Graphs With Pendant Paths, Alek Li

Theses

We consider a variant of the well-known Traveling Salesman Problem where the salesman must return to the starting point after each delivery. Ramanathan et al. asked whether different starting locations in a network yield the same total travel distance. The transmission of a vertex $u$ is defined to be $T(u)=\sum\limits_{v\in V(G)}d(u,v)$ where $d(u,v)$ is the number of edges in a shortest path between $u$ and $v$.  For specialized families of graphs, we investigate necessary and sufficient conditions for a graph to have distinct transmissions.  Graph asymmetry is a necessary condition for unique transmissions. However, it is not sufficient, as asymmetric …

Extraction And Interpretation Of Eeg Features For Diagnosis And Severity Prediction Of Ad And Ftd Using Deep Learning, Tuan Vo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia and is characterized by progressive cognitive decline and memory impairment. Frontotemporal dementia (FTD), the second most prevalent form, primarily affects the frontal and temporal lobes and often leads to changes in personality, behavior, and language. Due to overlapping clinical symptoms, FTD is frequently misdiagnosed as AD. Electroencephalography (EEG) offers a portable, non-invasive, and cost-effective method for studying brain activity; however, its diagnostic utility for differentiating dementia subtypes is limited by signal complexity and noise. In this dissertation, I propose an EEG-based feature extraction framework that leverages deep learning to identify …

Simulated Subjects, Real Responses: Surveying Decision Judgments Across Biological And Artificial Agents, Alara Karatuna

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Silicon participants are large language model generated research participants who are embedded with demographic information, as well as personality measures. The use of silicon participants in the behavioral sciences field is underexplored. This current study generated silicon participants based on human data (N=514), where each silicon participant matches their human counterpart. Both samples were asked to respond to seven decision-making dilemmas that are written from scratch. The dilemmas differ in their severity and represent the ambiguity of social life. Responses of the silicon participants were generated using ChatGPT 4.0. This is the first study that embedded personality traits …

Molecular Circuits In Dendritic Cell Development, Feiya Ou

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

In 2008, the Kenneth Murphy Laboratory published the seminal discovery that BATF3 is an essential transcription factor (TF) for the development of classical dendritic cell type 1 (cDC1) (Hildner et al., 2008). Since then, two major themes of the lab have been to elucidate the genetic networks that control dendritic cell (DC) development and to define the unique functions of individual DC subsets. My dissertation aligns primarily with the former theme while also reflecting my own scientific interests. Specifically, this dissertation investigates how two developmental enhancers are controlled by a series of TFs in cell type- and stage-specific manners to …

Open Education On Social Entrepreneurship: A Comparative Study Between Mexico And Bolivia To Scale Up Complex Thinking, Inés Alvarez-Icaza, Benito Javier Martinez-Briones, Liz Katherine Marco-Torrez, Evelyn Rondon-Jara

Higher Learning Research Communications

Objectives: This study examined the effectiveness of an open digital educational platform for developing complex thinking competencies through social entrepreneurship education among higher education students in Mexico and Bolivia. Specifically, it assessed changes in perceived systemic, scientific, critical, and innovative thinking and compared learning outcomes across both contexts.

Method: A quasi-experimental pre-post design was implemented with 601 participants (Mexico, n = 509; Bolivia, n = 92). Participants completed a validated 25-item, Likert-scale instrument assessing systemic, scientific, critical, and innovative thinking before and after engaging with the digital platform. Within- and between-group differences were analyzed using permutation-based statistical tests, complemented by …

Enduring Commitment: A Phenomenological Exploration Of Retention Among Veteran Early Childhood Educators In Rural Settings, Erin M. Wirtz

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

The retention of teachers has been a challenge, particularly in the field of early childhood education (Downey et al., 2024; Havlicek-Cook, 2012; Markowitz, 2024; Totenhagen et al., 2016). Research on teacher attrition is abundant, yet studies of retention are far less common, and those that exist have largely focused on K-12, novice, and urban educators. This study seeks to address this gap by exploring the experiences of veteran early childhood educators working in rural northern Minnesota. Guided by the framework of Deci and Ryan’s (2000) Self-Determination Theory, the purpose of this study was to examine factors that contribute to sustained …

System Architecture: Self-Aware Room, David B. Smith

Publications and Research

This report presents the system architecture for the Self-Aware Room, an evolvable research platform designed to transform heterogeneous environmental signals into structured semantic representations for decision-making, simulation, and immersive media output. The architecture is organized as a layered mediation pipeline, beginning with raw data acquisition from diverse sensing modalities and proceeding through local processing, feature abstraction, cross-modal fusion, semantic interpretation, and output to digital twin and immersive audiovisual systems. Rather than defining the system through a fixed set of devices, the report emphasizes the transformation pathways by which sensor data becomes computationally tractable, interpretable, and actionable. The architecture also allows …

Escaping Traditional Teaching: An Interactive Approach To Pediatric Oncology Nursing Education, Paige A. Ackerman Bsn, Rn

Patient Care Services / Nursing

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Interactions In Moiré Quantum Materials, Liangtao Peng

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Moiré quantum materials have emerged as a highly tunable platform for studying strongly interacting electrons in low dimensions. By twisting or lattice-mismatching atomically thin crystals, one can generate long-wavelength moiré superlattices that reconstruct the electronic bands, produce narrow bandwidths, and greatly enhance the importance of Coulomb interactions. As a result, these systems host a wide range of correlated phenomena, including symmetry breaking, magnetism, and superconductivity. This dissertation develops and applies Green's-function-based many-body methods to understand the role of interactions in moiré quantum materials. This dissertation consists of four chapters. The first chapter introduces moiré quantum materials and reviews the basic …

Beyond Attachment: Endolysosomal Determinants Of New World Arenavirus Entry And Fusion, Cassandra E. Thompson

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Arenaviruses are enveloped, negative-sense RNA viruses maintained in rodent reservoirs and transmitted to humans through exposure to aerosolized rodent excreta, where they can cause severe and sometimes fatal disease. The geographic distribution of arenaviruses reflects the range of their rodent reservoirs, resulting in the classification into Old World and New World groups, with New World arenaviruses further subdivided into clades A–D. Viral entry is the first step of infection and a major determinant of host range, tissue tropism, and zoonotic potential. Further, viral entry is a tightly regulated, multistep process that couple’s receptor engagement with intracellular trafficking and pH-dependent membrane …

Dynamic Individualized Latent Trait (Dilt) Model: Bridging Nomothetic And Idiographic Psychometrics, Muchen Xi

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims to develop an analytical framework that bridges the long-standing divide between nomothetic and idiographic approaches to defining the structure of personality and other individual differences. The nomothetic tradition seeks to explain and predict behavior through stable, universal dimensions of personality, while the idiographic approach emphasizes the fine-grained, dynamic processes unique to individuals. Although theoretical advances have begun to reconcile these perspectives, analytical methods capable of integrating them remain underdeveloped. To address this gap, I introduce the Dynamic Individualized Latent Trait (DILT) model, a framework that decomposes ordinal item responses from intensive longitudinal data into three components: 1) …

Advancing High-Energy Astrophysics Through X-Ray Spectropolarimetry And Balloon-Borne Instrumentation, Sohee Chun

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The strong gravitational field around black holes provides a unique laboratory for investigating the behavior of matter and radiation under extreme conditions. As matter accretes, the interplay between the accretion disk, hot corona, and surrounding stellar environment produces complex spectral and polarimetric X-ray signatures. Thus, X-ray spectropolarimetry has become a powerful tool for constraining the accretion geometry. Building on these advances, this dissertation integrates theoretical modeling, observational data analysis, and instrumentation development to address open questions in high-energy astrophysics. On the theoretical side, relativistic ray-tracing simulations test the truncated disk-hot inner flow accretion geometry against observations of Cygnus X-1, identifying …

3Ω Thermal Transport In Atomically Thin Materials, Yiwei Le

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Since the discovery of graphene, research on two-dimensional (2D) materials has become a central focus of condensed matter physics. While an enormous number and variety of investigations of their electrical, optical, and mechanical properties have been undertaken, their thermal properties remain comparatively underexplored, despite the importance for understanding low-energy excitations and phase transitions. Here, we introduce an extension of the 3ω method thermal measurement technique to the 2D limit of materials. We develop analytical models of thermal transport in the 3ω geometry with boundary conditions tailored for suspended 2D flakes. We then experimentally confirm the feasibility of this approach in …

Writing As A Process Of Inquiry In Autoethnography For Meaning-Making: Reflections And Some Points For Consideration, Niroj Dahal

The Qualitative Report

This article explores writing as a process of inquiry and meaning-making in the autoethnographic tradition, offering reflections on the recursive, emergent, and dialogical/dialectical nature of writing, along with some points for consideration. Drawing on perspectives from qualitative research and narrative inquiry (Riessman, 2008), I argue that autoethnographic writing serves as a method of inquiry and/or discovery, generating ontological, epistemological, and axiological-driven cultural meaning that functions as a site of reflection, interrogation, and re-storying of lived experiences. This recursive, often messy, and reflexive act allows researchers to excavate, analyze, and interpret their lived experiences. Rather than viewing writing as a final-stage …

Secondary Mathematics Teachers' Perceptions, Knowledge, And Collaborative Practices In Professional Learning Communities, Josey S. Rodriguez

Education Theses and Dissertations

This Improvement Science Dissertation in Practice (ISDiP) investigates teacher perceptions, knowledge of and collaborative practices of professional learning communities (PLCs) at a Southwest Texas high school. The study used a mixed-methods design utilizing a survey, open-ended questionnaire, PLC observations, and an interview. Participants included 8 mathematics teachers and one campus administrator at a campus with over 800 students in grades nine through twelve. Teacher perceptions of PLCs were analyzed using descriptive statistics for quantitative data, while observations, the open-ended questionnaire, and the interview were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Findings revealed that despite PLC+ training, limited …

How Survivors Of Exploitation Who Use Drugs Navigate Systems Of Care: An Analysis Of Survivor Insights Using The Intersectional Risk Environment, Theresa Anasti, Hilary Thibodeau, Nathaniel A Dell, Kathleen Preble, Lauren Grimes, Lindsay B Gezinski

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Drug-related risks such as adverse health outcomes, overdose, and violent victimization vary across populations due to the marginalization of identities, structural inequities, and differing environments. Discrimination and criminalization exacerbate drug-related risks specifically for survivors of sexual exploitation who use drugs. This study aims to understand how survivors who are not currently utilizing intensive treatment services perceive their risk environment, including available resources, and identify possible mechanisms to address health equity. Emphasizing the role of harm reduction and the expertise of lived experience, this paper encourages innovative approaches to supporting survivors.

METHODS: A research team conducted seventeen semi-structured interviews with …

B Cell Expression Of An Enzymatic Intermediary In Ether Lipid Biosynthesis Promotes Antibody Responses And Germinal Center Size, Sung Hoon Cho, Marissa A Jones, Kaylor Meyer, David M Anderson, Sergiy Chetyrkin, M Wade Calcutt, Richard M Caprioli, Clay F Semenkovich, Mark R Boothby

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The qualities of antibody (Ab) responses provided by B lymphocytes and their plasma cell (PC) descendants are crucial facets of responses to vaccines and microbes. Metabolic processes and products regulate aspects of B cell proliferation and differentiation into germinal center (GC) and PC states along with Ab diversification. However, there is little information about lymphoid-cell-intrinsic functions of enzymes that mediate ether lipid biosynthesis. Imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) results had indicated that concentrations of a number of these phospholipids were substantially enhanced in GC compared to the background average in spleens, but it was unclear if biosynthesis in B cells was …

Ndls Communicator: Week Of 04.27.26, Notre Dame Law School

NDLS Communicator

The Latest News

• 3L Nikki Rafferty has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Thomas L. Shaffer Public Interest Fellowship
• 3L Erin Hiestand has been named one of the American Constitution Society’s 2026 Next Generation Leaders
• Notre Dame Law School’s Barristers Mock Trial Team (the Law School’s Trial Advocacy Team) won the regional championship and advanced to nationals at the American Association for Justice (AAJ) Student Trial Advocacy Competition.
• The Notre Dame Exoneration Justice Clinic (EJC) will welcome three law students from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) to its summer internship program.

Student News

• Roselis Díaz De …

The Polymerized Protein Response (Ppr) Is Activated By Genetic Variants That Polymerize In The Er And Is Mediated By Nfκbp50, Admire Munanairi, David A Rudnick, Jiansheng Huang, David H Perlmutter

2020-Current year OA Pubs

In previous studies we have shown that accumulation of the polymerogenic variant ATZ that causes α1-antitrypsin deficiency (ATD) activates NFκB DNA binding. Here we discovered that this response, which we are naming the polymerized protein response (PPR), is characterized by NFκB p50 homodimers, distinct from the p50/p65 heterodimers in the canonical NFκB inflammatory response and the unfolded protein response (UPR). The PPR is also activated by other disease associated variants that polymerize in the ER whereas disease-associated variants that do not form polymers activate p50/p65 heterodimers and UPR. The PPR elicits a unique gene expression profile, including changes that stabilize …

Digital Assessment Of Subtractive And Additive Cad/Cam Fabrication Methods On The Fit And Accuracy Of Lithium Disilicate Veneers, Basma Refaat Fayad, Islam Heiba Dr, Sara Fikry Dr, Maha Nagy

Dentistry

Objectives: This study compared subtractive and additive fabrication methods regarding their impact on the marginal/internal fit, trueness, and precision of lithium disilicate ceramic veneers. Methods: Laminate veneer preparations on an acrylic tooth were duplicated into twenty-four additively manufactured resin dies. Veneers were digitally designed and fabricated via milling (subtractive) or 3D-printing (additive) (n=12/group). All veneers were scanned. For trueness, the final design served as the reference; for precision, pairwise comparisons were made within each group. For adaptation, the scanned die was the reference. Post-cementation and thermal cycling (10,000 cycles, 5–55°C), marginal adaptation was measured using a digital microscope (×100). Data …

Review: Misrecognitions: Plotting Capital In The Victorian Novel By Ben Parker, Suvij Sudershan

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Review: The Poetics Of Science: Marx’S Literary Style By Ludovico Silva, Thomas A. Laughlin

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Review: The Persistence Of Realism In Modernist Fiction By Paul Stasi, Chris Gortmaker

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.